brace in it. Supernumeraries were thrown in like the "shadows" at
Roman suppers, whom guests would bring without warning to their host,
and whose presence made not the slightest difference either in the
provision for the feast, or in the arrangements for those who had been
formally invited.

Thus remodelled at all points, the Ennead of Heliopolis was readily
adjustable to sacerdotal caprices, and even profited by the facilities
which, the triad afforded for its natural expansion. In time the
Heliopolitan version of the origin of Shu-Tafnuit must have appeared too
primitively barbarous. Allowing for the licence of the Egyptians during
Pharaonic times, the concept of the spontaneous emission whereby Aturnu
had produced his twin children was characterized by a superfluity of
coarseness which it was at least unnecessary to employ, since by
placing the god in a triad, this double birth could be duly explained
in conformity with the ordinary laws of life. The solitary Aturnu of the
more ancient dogma gave place to Aturnu the husband and father. He had,
indeed, two wives, Iusasit and Nebthotpit, but their individualities
were so feebly marked that no one took the trouble to choose between
them; each passed as the mother of Shu and Tafnuifc. This system of
combination, so puerile in its ingenuity, was fraught with the gravest
consequences to the history of Egyptian religions. Shu having been
transformed into the divine son of the Heliopolitan triad, could
henceforth be assimilated with the divine sons of all those triads which
took the place of Tumu at the heads of provincial Enneads. Thus we find
that Horus the son of Isis at Buto, Arihosnofir the son of Nit at Sais,
Khnumu the son of Hathor at Esneh, were each in turn identified with
Shu the son of Aturnu, and lost their individualities in his. Sooner
or later this was bound to result in bringing all the triads closer
together, and in their absorption into one another. Through constant
reiteration of the statement that the divine sons of the triads were
identical with Shu, as being in the second rank of the Ennead, the idea
arose that this was also the case in triads unconnected with Enneads; in
other terms, that the third person in any family of gods was everywhere
and always Shu under a different name. It having been finally admitted
in the sacerdotal colleges that Tumu and Shu, father and son, were one,
all the divine sons were, therefore, identical with Tumu, the father
o